Storms knock tree limb onto EKU students' cars

RICHMOND, Ky. (WKYT) - The afternoon storms around Central Kentucky may not have lasted long, but in Richmond they left their mark in several areas.

"I was sitting in the computer lab when they gave me a call and they said 'A tree fell on your car.' As you can see, it's a pretty big tree," started Eastern Kentucky University Senior, Richard Turnball. "They made it sound a whole lot worse than it was. It's just was a little dent, but when they called it sound like the windshield was broken and pretty damaged."

Turnbull's car was parked outside the Stratton Building on EKU's campus, when the storm moved through and knocked down a tree limb onto his car and another next to it. Turnbull came away with only scratches and a foot-long dent on his car, but the car beside him had a bit more damage to show. The tree landed square on the neighboring car, cracking the windshield and leaving a few other dents behind.

"Yeah it was pretty surprising," said Turnbull of the storm damage, "I didn't notice it from the inside, but apparently it was a lot worse than I thought."

While this storm was strong enough to cause some damage, it also put on quite a light show sending some in Richmond racing to put out a fire.

"It's always intense when your house gets struck by lightning," said Andrew Roe.

Firefighters say a bolt of lightning hit the bathroom vent on the roof and spread through the piping causing the insulation to catch fire inside an apartment on Hampton Way.

"We were sitting on the couch and all of the sudden it sounded like a gun went off. I looked outside and there were sparks shooting out of that electric box on the side of the house and it just went nuts," described Roe.

While the fire was in his neighbor's apartment, he said he shares the same townhouse. Roe couldn't help but find the irony in the small fire because he's starting his post graduate work in fire and arson investigation.

"Yeah, (I'll) use it for (my) master's program."

So while the storms didn't last long, they were still pretty strong. Although, Turnbull couldn't help but see the silver lining.

"It could be worse."

Workers at EKU say they will now likely have to come back and cut down the rest of the tree to avoid any more damage in the future.

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